Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

Science blogs

EVENTS

Limbaugh’s 13 Year Old Correspondent

Rush Limbaugh got a call on his show last week from a 13 year old kid who said that he had gone to the library and found proof that global warming is a hoax. And the two of them shared a laugh at a conversation the teenager had allegedly heard in a store:

RUSH: You mean…? Hold it just second. Alex, you’re at the health food store, and it’s cold out there. It’s March. You’re there in March, it’s cold, and two people in there are surprised that it’s cold because it’s global warming outside?

CALLER: Exactly.

RUSH: And they still concluded, “Well, we’re still in global warming”?

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: But they were shocked. This is hilarious. You know, Alex, there are none so blind as those who will not see, and that’s what you’re running up against.

How cute to hear them wallowing in ignorance and irrationality. The 13 year old kid at least can be excused; I believed some really dumb things at 13, as I’m sure you all did too. But only a rank ignoramus could believe that global warming is disproven if there’s ever a cold day anywhere. There are none so blind as those who are too ignorant even to know what they should be looking for.

As I recall, the recent years of record cold in the northern tier ARE explained by global warming. Basically, the air at the equator is hotter; hotter air is less dense and so rises higher; colder air from the temperate zones flows towards the equator, equalizing the pressure; much colder air from the poles flows into the temperate zones, equalizing the pressure and bringing significantly colder temperatures than have been the average. All of this has been part of the global warming models since they were first devised in the 70s.

I’m still laughing at the first part. A hoax so convincing it has taken in thousands of scientists and the worlds governments yet so poorly concealed the evidence it is a hoax can be found in a public library. What was this proof by the way?

I prefer climate change to global warming for this very reason. Even though the average temperature of the earth is rising you can get local regions of cooling depending on what is happening. For instance if the gulf stream shutdown England and Scandinavia would get a hell of a lot colder.

Hey now, this is quite insulting. We would need evidence that *this* 13 yr old is of average intelligence prior to incorrectly making such a claim and insulting 13 yr old kids worldwide. We can only assert that Limbaugh does not appear to possess adult level cognition.

I also prefer “climate change” over “global warming.” It reduces the number of idiots who point out snow and cold weather significantly. Then, if the conversation continues, you can also point out that climate change models include more extreme weather patterns (such as increased cold and snow in some areas) which defuses the “it snowed in Washington D.C. har har” arguments substantially.

When I was 13, I believed that the universe was created and ruled by an invisible, all-powerful, humanoid male who will judge these magical ghosts who live inside people after their bodies died for their behavior while they lived. He’d send the “good” ghost to a realm of eternal happiness while the “evil” ghosts would be sent to a place of unspeakable pain, forever.

And yesterday in Melbourne it was warm and sunny – so Global Warming is so not true – oh wait that was what I was trying to prove wrong, scratch that and reverse it.
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Dingo
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SLC – surely a couple of 15 Mt devices could fix that pesky Global Warming thingy (if only temporarily).
:D

Well, we all know that it MUST be the Ay-rabs who are responsible for global climate change. Maybe, pace Christopher Hitchens, if we had killed EVERYONE in Fallujah, we would be experiencing a perfect climate, forever!

Big Feets wonder the Northwest forests of North America
People used to be kinda like seals – that’s why humans aren’t all hairy
those big paintings in the desert? Used for communicating with space aliens
Yetis — real
Atlantis is at the same time off the coast of Japan, in the Caribbean and off the coast of Africa
the sun — shrinking

SLC – hmmm…. that’s not what you claimed before… perhaps your position is evolving!.
Well no – even several 15 Mt weapons would result in about 10-12 years of cooling and drought…
100Mt maybe not so much, the effect is not simply linear (square-cubed laws and all that).
Dingo

I doubt if a thirteen-year-old who listens and calls in to Rush is familiar with the concept of irony. Here at the river, we blame global warning for cold days, hot days, wet days, dry days, stormy days, high high tides, low low tides, low high tides, high low tides……..such a convenient scapegoat, who would want to deny its existence? and then there’s that thing about why new york isn’t still under a kilometer of ice…..

I recall listening to Rush once on the radio — must have been some decades ago. He was laughing about some scientists being concerned over reduced ozone over the southern polar region, while others were concerned about too much ozone in the air in New York City. Haven’t listened to him since. Sounds like he’s still selling ignorance. Probably getting a good price for it, too.

Apparently hot air tends to disrupt a roughly circumpolar air stream that holds back the cold air that has amassed in the Arctic. Thus the cold air can spill out into southern regions (much simplified version of a quite complex weather system).

But I like the idea of using the Tsar Bomba. On Limbaugh and other paid shills.

Global warming and climate change are NOT interchangeable terms. Global warming is happening. As a result, climate change is taking place. As noted, more/less rain, hotter/colder, etc. Using these terms properly helps avoid the discussion of weather that the deniers like to use.